If you are fed up with rock and roll music doing the same old thing, or worse, its younger sibling, the one going only be the name of Rock, being over-earnest, over-cliched, over-testosterone driven, not to mention just running through the same tried and tested moves…worry not, help is at hand. It comes bearing the heady and marvelous moniker of Kung Fu Hippies.
Okay, what they do is essentially rock music, but their’s is a sound so well thought out and so happy to wander beyond the usual rock and roll demarcations, to beg, borrow, or steal all manner of sonic moves from neighboring genres. And that is exactly what makes it all sound so fresh and unburdened by the rules and regulations laid down by those leather-clad deities of rock. No huffing and puffing, no fretting and sweating, no angst or agro…just a band writing their name in the margins of the annals of rock.
Any band would have been happy to have written the Americana-infused, lyrically surreal, indie-rock groover “Days Gone By,” and then perhaps, content in their creativity, would have retired to a teaching position and held court at every opportunity, reveling in their own smugness to the young and impressionable. Kung Fu Hippies take the opposite tack and write six more equally marvelous musical slices. Not for them one-hit wonderland.
“Brutus” is bluesy and understated, yet at the same time engaging and infectious, “Northwoods Boy” (which they brilliantly describe as the soundtrack to a Spaghetti Northern) is a drifting then beat-driven cowboy song for the modern age, full of nostalgic memories and incredible sonics, and “Shelly Lee” is a blend of 60’s rock and roll, 70’s singer-songwriter groove, and so much optimism, celebration, fun and love that sounds timeless.
Kung Fu Hippies have been doing this for a while now, 25 years actually, and it shows. They certainly don’t put songs on their albums to make up the numbers, and with North, it shows. As albums go, it is small yet perfectly formed, short, sharp, and shockingly good a brilliant blend of fun and finesse, If that was a description were of a prospective partner, you’d propose marriage immediately, wouldn’t you?
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